When a former beauty editor (Eleanor Langston) and a nail guru (Julie Kandalec) open a nail salon (Paintbox), the entire beauty NYC beauty world shows up—which is what happened when they invited us to stop by for their grand opening in SoHo last week. And although the space is gorgeous and the nail art offerings are incredibly chic, it was a little move that Kandalec used on my hands that was the big game-changer for this see-everything blogger.

While she was removing the remains of my previous manicure, she whipped out a clean mascara wand (like these from Ricky's), dipped it in remover, and gently scrubbed around the edges of my nails to get every tiny little trace of polish off. Um, how have I never thought of this before? Fantastic.

Also fantastic: How well my finished blue-and-white nails went with Kandalec's. Behold: